Katie's Two!!!

We had a little family party for her. She has been singing the happy birthday song all month. We finally got it on camera.

She got some glasses and some playing outside shoes. She also got bubbles that she insisted on playing with that night (and blowing herself). What a mess! I'm glad they were non-toxic because after a little bit she was blowing bubbles with her mouth. She took the gift bag from one of her presents and put all of her presents in it and carried it around the room. It ended up in her little house. It's amazing how much more she understands this year.

We decided to give her the lawn mower the next morning because it was too dark to play with that night (although I'm sure she would have figured something out). She also got to do watercolors for the first time. She loves it!

Egg Dying Eggstravaganza

We hosted an Easter Egg Dying party for the cousins this year. It's one of those traditions that has stuck with me from my childhood.

We had all sorts of stickers and dyes and great moms to help. Everyone's eggs turned out great.


Katie was pretty insistent that she get an egg too. I told her she could color on an egg with a crayon. When I brought the egg down to show her how to color on it, without hesitation, she grabbed the egg and WHACK! right on the table. She knows what we do with eggs. Good thing it was boiled. I had to explain to her that we were coloring them and that I was going to show her first. After that we didn't have any problems. She got to dye them and put some stickers on them.


We saved the dye so Kimball and I could dye some that night. Here are the results.
Kimball's eggs. This one he dyed in all of the colors in order of the rainbow. We thought it would be brown. Unfortunately we didn't get pictures of all of the phases. It was pretty cool.



My eggs. We found out that painters tape works much better than regular stickers. However, the eggs have to be closer to room temperature and aren't wet from condensation. You may be able to tell that one of my eggs took a tumble. :(

Lawn Mower

As promised here are more pictures of the grass. There really isn't a lot of grass. Katie was SO excited. She was a little taken back when he turned it on. But after a little bit needed to be right in the action. Now when he mows, they have to go around 2 or three times so Katie can push it. Yes, she can push it all by herself for a little ways. The funniest part is the conversation we have several times a day about the lawnmower. It's usually the first thing we talk about when she gets up now and then whenever she sees it on the patio. This is how it usually goes:

K- is it on?
M- no it's off
K- it's daddys
M- yes it's daddys
K- it's a lawnmower (or mower)
M- yes it's a lawnmower
K- it's big
M- yes it's big
K- it's black
M- yes it's black
K- it's a push
M- yes we push it
K- it's heavy (with emphasis)
M- yes it's heavy

Naming of the Noodles

Everything is either a baby, mommy or daddy. She pulled the silverware out of the drawer one day. When she got to the serving spoon she looked at it for a second and said "it's daddys" and "it's papas" because it was the biggest one she had ever used. Everything small is, of course, a baby. She does this with everything lately. Well, tonight at dinner we had ziti. She started by saying this is the baby, then the daddy, and then the mommy noodle before she ate each one. And then she started giving them names of anyone she knew (cousins, friends, froggie). It was really funny. She was so matter of fact about it, I had a hard time not laughing.

Grass

We have grass! This was my Christmas present. It started out as rocks. Katie would want to go outside and then end up eating the rocks. The process started last fall, but the grass came during Christmas break. Thank you to everyone who made it possible.
We had some great help...

... and some Katie help.


Finally, time for the sprinklers.


And the curbing.


Here is a small piece of the beautiful green grass. More pictures to come in the lawnmower post. :)
That is Katie's microphone that we each get to sing with when we play outside. She loves being outside. It's great to have a place for her to play.

Idaho Trip

Katie and I got to go to Idaho to visit family. Unfortunately, Kimball had school and couldn't come. The highlight of the trip was, well besides grandma and grandpa, the snow. She still isn't sure what to think of it. But she had a great time on the sled with Papa. The have attached a rope to the sled so it's easy to pull the little kids around the yard.

She was investigating the snowman and realized her hand was cold and wet.


My parents have also acquired a few sets of cross country skis over the years. It's been a long time but I made it around without falling. The snowshoes on the other hand I wasn't so lucky. It turns out the polls really are important. My brother is behind me ready to catch me if I fall or run over me one of the two.

The Children's Museum

My sister came for a visit right before Thanksgiving and we met them at the Phoenix Children's Museum. It was so much fun. There was a little something for everyone of all ages. Katie's favorites were the "Noodle Forest" and the restaurant cooking area.

This is the noodle forest. We had to hurry and take the picture because she would turn around and run back in the second she got out. Sometimes you just had to listen for the squeal of delight to figure out where she was.

This was her favorite place. They had another one that was more her size but we didn't find it until later. In this area they also have a brick oven to make pizzas. All of the ingredients were scraps of fabric. She was just content to stir her bowls and put things in the fridge.


My cousin Tyler was there with his family as well. This is his daughter and Katie's cousin Halle.